The topics are, of course, the new Android 4.2 release, and the new Nexus devices that came along with it, the Nexus 4, 7 and 10. As you can easily guess, some of the most often-asked things are about the system buttons and status bar now consistent in Jelly Bean, as well as the lack of memory card slots in the new Nexus gear.

Here are his two lengthy answers so far, head over to G+ to ask what's on your mind, as he might still be answering some of the questions:

Why did you make the system buttons and status bar consistent across all devices in Jelly Bean?

Consistency and usability are really important to us, and that’s something we strive to improve in every new version of Android. With Honeycomb we first introduced the idea of a completely onscreen navigation UI which gave us unprecedented flexibility in how that UI adapts and transforms - both when you turn the device in your hands and when the software changes and has different control needs. Now in Jelly Bean we’ve made the universal software navigation buttons and system bar consistent across all screen sizes.

This new configuration is based on usability research we did on all of the different form factors and screen sizes that Android runs on. What mattered most of all was muscle memory - keeping the buttons where you expect them, no matter how you hold the device.

Phones are almost always used in portrait mode, flip sideways occasionally, and never go upside down. As screen sizes get larger though, any which way goes. Imagine the frustration you’d feel if every time you picked up a tablet off the table ‘the wrong way up’ you found yourself reaching for a home button that wasn’t where you expect it to be? That irritation adds up and over time like a tiny grain of sand in your shoe and undermines the rest of your experience.

The Jelly Bean system bar always keeps the same 3 buttons where you expect them. This happens dynamically for every screen size, up until you get to small handheld screens where stacking the bars in landscape mode would leave too little vertical space.

The second thing we discovered was that there are almost as many different ways of holding our devices as there are people. In fact people love to use their Nexus so much that they use them for such long periods of time that having a single ‘correct grip’ is actually counter productive and increases hand strain. The Jelly Bean navigation buttons work equally well for left handers and right handers, one handed use, or two handed use, and for devices you’re carrying, resting on your knee, or putting on the table.

Last but not least, by unifying the design we are now able to put Notifications and Quick Settings right where you’d expect them, and only one swipe away.

Why don’t Nexus devices have SD cards?

Everybody likes the idea of having an SD card, but in reality it's just confusing for users.

If you’re saving photos, videos or music, where does it go? Is it on your phone? Or on your card? Should there be a setting? Prompt everytime? What happens to the experience when you swap out the card? It’s just too complicated.

We take a different approach. Your Nexus has a fixed amount of space and your apps just seamlessly use it for you without you ever having to worry about files or volumes or any of that techy nonsense left over from the paleolithic era of computing.

With a Nexus you know exactly how much storage you get upfront and you can decide what’s the right size for you. That’s simple and good for users.

Exactly. They should have at least released a 32GB model. I don't care that the entry model is 8GB -- you get what you pay for, as they say. But limiting the device to 16GB of storage is going to be the biggest let-down of this phone for some people.

No LTE can be excused -- it costs a lot to put it in a device, it kills the battery, and isn't THAT big of a help over HSPA+. But not offering models with more space at a time when storage is cheap and cellular data is expensive, that's a problem.

Personally, I shouldn't need more than 16GB of space on a phone, but I'm in a minority.

17.Aeires (unregistered)

They do have the 16 gig version, but even that's too little. Being a flagship, full Google experience phone, they should have offered a 32 gig version. Better yet, all three and let me decide which one fits my budget and daily needs.

I disagree.. why not just do what Samsung does?
All your photos and recorded videos go to SD by default(easiest way to swap in your next phone ), and apps go to internal storage without the possibility to move them to SD (ensuring a clean performance ).

Cards can cause problems and lag if they're low quality and slow class.

4.SleepingOz (unregistered)

Regardless of whether it's confusing for some people, it can't hurt to include it, can it? If someone finds it confusing, just don't use an SD card. But if you want the extra storage, you still have the option.

I think the same. How SD cards are confusing? I would be content without expandable storage if the new Nexus have at least 64 GB. As PhoneArena proved in their recent poll, power users need more than 32 gigs. Duarte is trying to make banal excuses a la Apple to justify the poor storage options. Besides, that way they're getting rid of paying potential SD licences.

Exactly. Are SD cards less confusing on a laptop, or any other similar device for that matter? Why not have digital cameras with fixed storage as well? They used to, on the lowest end cameras that had VGA resolution.

I agree with the idea of it's better to have something and not use it, than to need it and not have it available. He makes it sound like the majority of people are buying a Nexus device, but most are buying skinned devices, with expandable storage and removable batteries. The latter is getting to be less of an issue with the current crop of CPUs getting good battery life on LTE. But the need for more space is always going to be an issue. Higher definition video & audio, and graphics intensive games require more today than they did one year ago, and it's only going to get worse going forward. With the advent of limited data plans using the cloud becomes more tricky, and even then it's as "confusing" as sd cards (is it on the phone or on the cloud?). And what if, like I do, you use multiple cloud vendors, ie Box, Dropbox, etc.? Other than cost savings there really should be no reason not to have expandable storage, especially on a high end device. Just my opinion.

Right, you added a pretty valid question to the mix, how different is storing on a SD card from uploading to the cloud, actually sometimes the cloud can be more complicated. I also doubt ISP's will grant people unlimited high-speed plans in the near future. Nowadays people still need local storage period.

6.wendygarett (unregistered)

I'm afraid that's true, not to flamebait here, don't get me wrong, micro sd is good for storing the photo and music to keep as history, but how many people done that??? Elderly will but a lot of spoilt brats like me hate to do so...

Storing the apps?? That will make your device even laggy trust me that... When no storage to store apps, most of us will delete the obsolete gaming apps and replaced the new one, to avoid confusion of course lol, same goes to music especially...

22.wendygarett (unregistered)

Isn't that the reason that Google refuse to let you to move apps to sd card?? And you end up download the apps that enable to?? One of my friends are using sgs2 and his angry bird keep on frozen... But the problem solved when he removed the apps to internal storage... Wanna show more proof? :)

it will only lags in last year's devices.. I have Desire S, rooted, and all my games are in the SD partition.. I don' have lags.. The only lags I have is when I have many apps open (aka low RAM) but not because it's in SD..

I think that's just an excuse... The reason oems don't put sd card slots is so they can charge an extra 50 or 100 dollars to double the storage where as of you have a sd slot you would buy the cheapest option and then buy a 32gb card for 20 dollars... Am I agree if you have problems using a simple thing as a sd card then you should not even bother with a smartphone... His trying to make it like you need to learn how to use a sd card lol its as simple as just using a usb stick.. As for where photos are saved there's always an option to choose where you want photos and videos to be saved. Would have been more than happy to sell my s3 for the nexus 4 if it had a sd slot.. For me no sd no purchase.. It's not like you will be forced to use it.

This kind of thinking isn't all that helpful if you are trying to sell to lots of people. AFAIK Google is looking to make android ubiquitous not a niche product no matter how productive an sd-card slot can be.

People can use them to one extent or the other but do they want to ? Why make dealing with a smartphone harder rather than easier ?

It would have been cool to have one but I'd rather the openness of Android be extended to as many people as possible rather than being dogmatic about sd cards. They should just make a form fitting USB key that attaches ( with passthrough if needed ) to micro-usb port.

And it seems like a weak argument when the target audience for a Nexus device is more technically inclined than most smartphone users. They're just using that excuse as a cover to get everything stored in the cloud. Put an empty SD slot there, if someone is smart enough to buy an SDCard and use it so be it. I don't like people/companies telling me how to use my device, that's what I have a brain and am currently using an open source operating system.

I for one will not comply, I have my own NAS at home and have no desire to use a public cloud to pull my pics, vids, music over a data connection away from home where I may or may not have a good connection.

My next device will have excellent developer support and an SDCard. And oh yeah, until they fix LTE battery life a removable battery ;)

Best. Comment. Ever! Condescending is the perfect description for the tone of this reply. Frankly, it sounds very "apple-esque" and could even be excused if this comment came from them. But in my mind this is inexcusable for any Google exec to use as rationale. Android, you're better than that.

I don't think SD cards are confusing, but they have caused me problems in the past. Idk too much about it, but I have had music skip, files get corrupted, and the instability of some cards even made my phone freeze and reboot. I know it's not a common issue, although I can see why Google might opt to exclude them.

I get the no sd card thing but if these Nexus devices are for developers... I'm sure they know whats going on. Also, if you're going to release a phone without external storage, how about we offer an option with more than 16GB eh?

Really? Confusing? Maybe for eldery people (with no disrespect). I always know where on my sd things are stored. This is a really bad arguement to justify the ideea Google has about SD card. Yes, they can be unreliable. For instance I have a 2 year old SD card which started about a month ago to corupt some of my photos, but i can always back them up and buy another SD when and if this one dies (for whatever reason).

I worked vzw t2 tech for2 years. Predominantly with android and BB. I can attest.
Many average smartphone users are confused by sd cards. How they work how to back them up (so many ad cards fail, due to the card itself or user I'd debatable.) But I find internal shortage is more straight forward for most end users

If he can only insult the intelligence of Android
Users by claiming a " Set and Forget " SD card is
" Confusing to users " he needs to be replaced.
He is beginning to sound like an Apple executive.
No small wonder Palm crashed and folded
while he was there.

Someone needs to shut this guy up. I'd prefer SD CARD on any phone. Besides need it to save to expand my memory for my music/apps/picture/video. This guy doesn't know what hes talking bout. How can someone get confused bout SD CARD when all of us knows bout SD CARD

Google: You should have your photos and music saved to the cloud. You can download it when you need it.

Me: Like on that road trip through the middle of no where to my Grandparents who live in the middle rural town USA? HA! I had data for about a half hour. So much for all my music in my dropbox. I wish my Grandparents could've seen those pictures I took of my kids. Unfortunately, they are in my dropbox also.

Google: Well, at least you're not confused by having to deal with a microSD card in your phone.

Me: F*** You Google.

To avoid getting frustrated over this, I'll just get the SGSIII instead.

48.Savage (unregistered)

SD cards are confusing? People who are smart enough to run Android very well know the difference between phone's internal and expandable memory. Not putting micro-sd card slots in Nexus devices makes people turn away from them. If this wasn't so, it would beat major Android flagships any day.

He is telling lie wrt SD card slot (or lack of it)... I am an Android fan and don't really care about the lack of SD slot in my GNexus... But I hate to see GOOGLE telling lies and BS reasons to hide the real reason (Google, do you really think die-hard Android users like me have little knowledge or more confused about SD storage -- Its just a tap at settings at first time and NOTHING more to do later, imho)

The real reason to avoid SD slot is to avoid paying patent royalty to M$ for the exFAT - FileSystem, an extended FileSystem for storage greater than 32GB and also to have JUMBO files greater than 4GB (4GB is MAX file size for FAT32 and it can handle upto 32GB size partitions only)..

Thats why they (both APPLE and GOOGLE) are avoiding card slots in their own devices..

In NexusONE days, there is NO 64GB cards -- So SD slot available in Nexus-1 and NOT in other Nexii, imho...

Apple does it so they can charge you a fat surcharge for memory. You wouldnt pay an extra $100 for 16 gigs of memory on an iphone if you could just throw in a $10 16gig SDcard. Apple is pure profit motivated.

However, the point IS TRUE. that Matias makes. To a basic user, going from on board memory to SD card memory can be confusing and tedious. Ask anyone who's worked in the industry for a while. We've all had customers that had no idea why this picture was here and that app was there. By removing the removable memory, you completely remove that confusion. They are trying to go after the "laymen customer" that Apple has been preying upon for years. Now they are accustomed to apple's limits in exchange for not having to think. So in order to capture that rather large market, you have to do the same thing.
Power users will always be turned off by such streamlining. However, we power users are the vast MINORITY of users.

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